5 in 5 minutes - June 23rd

WHub teams up with Societe Generale for a FinTech hackathon

WHub and Societe Generale jointly launch FinHACK, a 36-hour FinTech hackathon in Hong Kong, to promote innovation and the development of Hong Kong’s FinTech ecosystem.

The FinTech hackathon will take place from July 7th to 9th at Campfire Creative. Participants including students from universities, entrepreneurs, coders and developers will work together to come up with and develop innovative solutions to address business challenges spanning four main themes: Blockchain; Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ChatBots; Big Data; and RegTech, InsureTech and WealthTech.

OKLink is accepted to the regulatory sandbox of The UK’s FCA

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), one of the UK’s top financial regulators, recently released an update on its regulatory sandbox and unveiled successful applications of firms to begin testing in the second cohort. 

Hong Kong-based FinTech startup, OKLink, is accepted along with 24 other companies, of which nine are blockchain-related. The regulatory sandbox allows the businesses to test innovative products, services, business models and delivery mechanisms in a live environment while ensuring that consumers are protected. 

Launched in 2016, OKLink is a next generation global value transfer network based on blockchain technology. It also promotes the democratization of finance and reshapes the financial system framework.

Brinc's China trip to Shenzhen for RISE Conference Attendees

Brinc will be taking part in the RISE festivities this year and will be kicking off with a China trip to Shenzhen for interested attendees to learn about China's manufacturing capabilities through Brinc's network. The trip will be for two days starting from July 9th to 10th and will cover a partner factory visit, a tour of the famous Huaqianbei Electronics market, along with networking drinks and dinner. 

DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia garnered over 1000 entries this year

DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia is an Asia-wide competition for social enterprises, organized by NUS Enterprise and DBS Foundation. The Challenge identifies and supports the new social ventures that have the potential to generate positive, scalable and sustainable social impact. 

This year, 32 innovative ideas and 60 great social enterprises have been selected from over 1000 entries. The selected entries will proceed to the next round of judging, bringing them closer to being one of the top awardees in the region.

AWS to open a new region in Hong Kong in 2018

Werner Vogels dropped the news about the plan for AWS (Amazon Web Services) to open a new region in Hong Kong in 2018. 

According to Warner’s blog, the new region will give Hong Kong-based businesses, government organizations, non-profits, and global companies with customers in Hong Kong, the ability to leverage AWS technologies from data centers in Hong Kong. The new region will have three Availability Zones and be ready for customers to use. 

Some of the most successful Hong Kong-based startups in the world, such as 8 Securities, GoAnimate and 9GAG, have already been using AWS to deliver highly reliable, scalable, and secure applications to customers.